The palm of one's hand can be subjected to significant trauma when one engages in certain physical activity such as bicycle riding, weight lifting, shoveling, etc. involving gripping by the hand. Shock forces are transmitted through the article being held to the hand, especially the palm of the hand. Within the proximal palm is the median nerve. This nerve is particularly vulnerable to trauma within the flexor retinaculum of the palm.
Various types of gloves and pad devices do exist for covering the hand during such activities. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,498 discloses a palm guard for covering only part of the palm of the user. Some prior gloves and hand guards are provided with shock absorbing materials such as foam rubber, quilting or nap over part or all of their surface areas to provide extra insulation and buffering. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,173,150; 3,598,408 3,363,265; 4,176,407; 4,183,100; 4,691,387 and 4,590,625. In some cases, the extra padding is releasable from the basic glove structure so that the characteristics of the gloves can be varied to suit the user's particular activity. Examples of protective gloves of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,885,249; 3,994,025 and 4,042,975. While these prior conventional gloves and pads do provide some protection to the hand, they do not offer sufficient protection to the median nerve. As a result, the user may suffer numbness of the thumb, index and third fingers (known as carpel tunnel syndrome) and/or other soft tissue injuries at the base of the thumb following biking, shoveling, or other such activity involving strenuous use of the hand.